Unlike, say, “A Complete Unknown” or “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” both of which tackled around two years in the life of an artist, “Michael” is being marketed as a full-fledged jukebox musical, dishing out the hits. This is a more commercial film.
Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic will make a lot of money, Lionsgate has even admitted hopes it cracks the $2 billion worldwide mark. The excitement is there. The trailer, released yesterday, was the most watched video on YouTube.
In its first six hours after dropping, the first trailer racked up over 30M views overall. That’s a record for Lionsgate and top 10 all-time numbers for “Michael.”
The enthusiastic response has been so overwhelming that, when asked by an analyst to provide an update on whether the second half, Lionsgate Motion Picture Chair Adam Fogelson stated that “more Michael” could be announced right after the first film gets released.
While we’re not yet ready to confirm plans for a second film, I can tell you that the creative team is hard at work making sure that we’re in a position to deliver more Michael soon after we release the first film.
If you remember, Lionsgate split “Michael” into two parts not only because the original cut ran four hours, but also because the latter part had scenes focusing on one of Jackson’s accusers—material that, due to a settlement with the singer’s estate, could never be dramatized.
There are reports that the first instalment will end in 1982/1983, which is when Jackson hit peak popularity with “Thriller.” The sequel would continue on by tackling “Bad”-era Jackson, and the subsequent, and highly tumultuous ‘90s.
I imagine that ten years from now, we’ll eventually get to see the full cut in some form—“Michael: The Whole Bloody Affair,” or something like that.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.